Technology is advancing rapidly and people can now “drive” their cars on autopilot. Who wouldn’t want to put their cars on autopilot while they sit back and relax? Unfortunately, full autopilot driving is still prohibited in Malaysia. A Singaporean couple once got in trouble when they drove their Tesla on autopilot around Malaysia back in April.
Autopilot may be prohibited now but we may see this feature implemented in vehicles on the road one day. We still have a long way to go before the autopilot feature is implemented in every vehicle but one of our public transportations is currently getting the upgrade. Here are the details:
Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd is introducing the first ever autonomous bus in Malaysia. The trial for the new bus is expected to roll out as early as next month. In this joint effort with eMoovit Technology Sdn Bhd, the trial will be conducted on the Sunway BRT network using a fully imported bus from China for 1 year.
“Rapid Bus chose this autonomous bus technology to enhance the public transport sector in line with the need to increase sustainability and environmental friendliness,” said Rapid Bus head, Muhammad Yazurin Sallij at the event witnessed by Hamidi Adam, the deputy secretary of land transport at the Transport Ministry.
If you’re concerned about passengers’ safety while they’re on the self-driving bus, then don’t worry as the vehicle will not carry any passengers for the trial programme. This was revealed yesterday (Tuesday, 28th September) when Rapid Bus exchanged the memorandum of understanding with eMoovit Technology. The trial will also be conducted during after-service hours.
The bus operator company, which is the subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia, hopes that the trial will provide all the necessary input to ensure that self-driving buses in the future will be able to operate safely and efficiently while reducing operating costs and workforce.
